Chapter 5 – The Boss
On Friday morning, I chose my clothes for that evening very carefully. It'd been a while since I last went clubbing, but I knew what to pick out. Skinny jeans, fashionable heels, and a beautiful blue top were thrown into my bag so I could change at work. I was looking forward to this night out – I think I needed it, after my first week at work.
I was surprised I'd even lasted one entire week. I had thought of quitting so many, many times – only the promise of Alec's one thousand dollars kept me going. I swear, I had the worst boss on the entire planet. Anything I did, he made me redo it with just some little detail added. It was as if he wanted to find something wrong with everything I did. And to make it worse, I was now reduced to a panting pile of hormones in his presence. I refused to stoop down to Bella's level, but I was now officially attracted to my boss. My life couldn't get much more complicated.
My morning started off pretty decently – I delivered Edward his cup of coffee, got to work on the newest project, and ignored the vapid, shallow, bitch sitting on the other side of the room. Quite a feat, if you ask me. However, as soon as I finished one piece of work, Edward came in demanding that I redo it.
I rolled my eyes. "What's wrong with it this time, Edward?" I asked, while shamelessly fantasizing about strangling the life right out of him.
"The wording just isn't right," he insisted, indicating an entire page of descriptions for his new product. It would take me at least an hour to rewrite everything on that page, and more if it didn't pass his second inspection.
I sighed. "I wrote it just like you showed me to last time."
"The sentences don't make sense, and they don't flow together," he pressed on. "You need to review this again."
I snatched the paper back from him, muttering profanities under my breath. "Let's hope it passes your inspection next time, coroner," I mumbled, frustrated beyond all belief.
"Thank you," Edward said stiffly, not having heard my last comment. "I want it within the hour."
I nodded obediently, but when his back was turned, I stuck my tongue out at him. It was childish, but made me feel better in a weird, twisted way. Sighing again, I looked over the long page that I now had to rewrite.
All of a sudden, an idea struck me. What if Edward had an ulterior motive to making me redo all my work? I would get somebody else to check this over as well.
I retrieved my phone from my work bag and discreetly shot Jasper a text, telling him to meet me in the break room in five. He also worked as a secretary – I knew he would be able to provide an unbiased opinion about my work. Muttering something about a bathroom break, I headed out to the break room to meet Jasper.
Five minutes later, I was pacing in front of him while he smirked at me.
"Well?" I demanded. "Is it good or not?"
"It's as perfect as these reports get," he responded. "If you ask me, Cullen has some ulterior motive to doing this."
I growled with frustration. "He's getting off on me being angry or some messed up shit like that," I claimed, my temperamental brain jumping to the worst conclusions.
Jasper smirked at me again. "I wouldn't put it past him. No one knows what goes on in that mind of his."
I sighed. "Thanks, Jas. I guess I just have to go deal with this myself."
"Don't keel over from the stress, sweet cheeks." He hugged me quickly and went back to his own office.
I resolved to take Edward up on this discretion and demand to know why he was making me redo a literally perfect piece of work. I stormed right back into the office, with Bella looking at me in shock as I just pushed Edward's door open; no knock, no nothing.
"J-Jane!" he stuttered, looking surprised to see me. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Yeah," I said, fighting to keep the snarl out of my voice. "I just got feedback from an outside source about my work, and I was told that there were no problems with it. I'm afraid that I can't find anything to revise, Edward."
His brow furrowed, and he looked at me with a mix of fear and anger. "Who did you ask?" he questioned.
"Jasper Whitlock, head secretary to Maria Bloomberg."
"When did you ask him this?"
"Just now," I replied. "I asked for his professional opinion, and he offered it. And before you tell me that it's against the rules, I already checked. I'm perfectly liable to share work with other secretaries or PAs for revision purposes." I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at the Sex God sitting before me.
He just sighed and held out his hand. "Give me the paper and get on with your other work, please."
I smiled triumphantly. "Thank you, Edward. I'm sure this won't happen again." I raised an eyebrow in question.
He nodded, looking a bit downcast.
"Good," I said. I walked out of his office, and that was the last I saw of him all day.
~*FRtR*~
By the time five o'clock rolled around, I was ready to get the hell out of this place. Edward had only contacted me through emails for the rest of the day – the motherfucker was scared. I was trying to be mad at him, but I couldn't be for too long. It just made me want to hate him even more.
Rose texted me, telling me to change quickly and meet the rest of them in the lobby in ten minutes. I texted back, telling her I'd be down soon.
In the bathroom, I changed from my work to my party clothes, freshened up my makeup, and let my hair loose. It felt good to not be dressed formally for once. I met Rose and Alice in the lobby, both of them dressed in casual clothes.
"Hey," I said, greeting them with a nod.
"How did you deal with Cullen?" Alice asked me. "Jasper told me," she added, when I looked at her in confusion.
"Just gave it to him good," I shrugged. "He didn't complain after that. Hasn't talked to me for the rest of the day."
"Nice," She grinned, fist-bumping me.
"We ready to go?" Rose asked, surveying our little group.
"Ah…we're waiting on one more," Alice said, cringing slightly.
Rose's nostrils flared, and I suppressed the urge to giggle. "You invited Bella?" she hissed, truly the picture of fury.
"Come on, she heard me talking to you about tonight!" Alice negotiated. "Just put up with her for now."
"Bella's coming?" I groaned. "Don't I deal with her enough during the day?"
"We've got your back," Rose said.
"Shh, she's coming," Alice said, shushing us hurriedly.
"Hey, guys," Bella said, appearing from behind me. She gave me a once over, paired with a dirty look. "What are you doing here?"
"Same as you," I said politely. "Just wanted to have fun."
She scoffed at me and turned away. It would have been dramatic had anyone else said something to her, but we all just remained silent.
"Alright, let's go," Alice said awkwardly, trying to diffuse the tension. We all piled in to Rosalie's car, having made the decision to leave our cars at work. I knew that Alec was picking up mine when he got home tonight. The drive to the club was tension-riddled, and not the good, sexual kind. The bad, awkward kind permeated the air and prompted me to take out my phone and text Rose.
How long do we have to put up with her?
Just ditch her at the club, she responded. I sighed in relief; I thought I was going to have to spend the entire night with that bitch.
We made it to the club before six-thirty, pretty good time considering it was a two-hour drive away. Of course, Rosalie doubled as a NASCAR driver. I'd never seen a car go that fast in my life.
"Why'd we come all the way out here?" I asked, looking up at the big sign that read 'Eclipse' in bright, neon letters.
"'S the best club for miles," Alice claimed, pushing us all into the building. Someone was eager to get drunk tonight.
"Only you wouldn't know that it's the best club around," Bella smirked pretentiously at me.
I raised an eyebrow. "I apologize if I'm too busy getting my degree at Harvard, and not whoring it around at some random club."
Bella simply turned a very ugly shade of puce and turned her back on me. I smiled to myself, and winked at Rose when she shot me a gleeful thumbs up. Within five minutes, we were seated at a table with our drinks, all thanks to Rose flaunting her assets at the bartender. I swear, that woman has no boundaries. We all knew she would never cheat on Emmett, but that didn't stop her from shamelessly reducing men to puddles of goo at her feet.
"So how was your first week at work?" Alice asked, as we each sipped our drinks.
I shrugged. "Informative. Interesting. Definitely good for grad school apps."
"What are you majoring in?" Rose asked.
"Major in Business and Finance, and a minor in Fashion Design. I know," I said, putting a hand up to stop her response. "A really odd combination. But I want to start my own clothing line someday, and those are the degrees that will help me do it."
Alice whistled. "Wow. That's a pretty huge goal."
I shrugged. "What can I say? I'm an ambitious girl."
Bella snorted into her drink, obviously trying to draw the attention to herself.
"Yes, Bella?" I asked politely, my anger at the tip of my voice.
"Well," she started, a malicious glint in her eye. "In your first week at work here, I've realized that you do have a lot of ambition…not just for your work."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rosalie demanded harshly. She was eyeing Bella predatorily, and if looks could kill, Bella would be dead meat.
"Just that she and Edward seem awfully close for just one week at work," Bella sneered. "And you had to go after James Cullen too?"
That was the last straw. I was about to open my mouth and rip her a new one, but Alice took over for me happily.
"Bella Swan, you know that is not the truth! Just because you're jealous that your dear Edward won't give you the time of the day, does not mean you have to attack your new colleague who happens to be way more professional than you!" Alice took a deep breath, having gotten all the words out on a single bout of air.
Rosalie reached across the table and high-fived her, not even caring that Bella was watching.
The brunette she-devil just huffed, muttered, "Bathroom," and stomped off to the back of the club. I sighed in relief.
"Sorry about that," Rose said. "I didn't know she'd be this bad."
"Nah, it's cool," I replied. "Thanks for having my back though, Alice."
"No problem," she hissed, still glaring in the direction that Bella stormed off in. "That little bitch—"
"Look, just ignore her," I interrupted. "I came here to enjoy myself, not to listen to Satan's spawn spew lies about me, alright?"
"Satan's spawn spew," Rose said thoughtfully. "That's like a tongue twister on it's own."
I giggled. "It sounds funny," I claimed. "Like…Satan's spawn are….spewing."
It took a moment for Rose and Alice to catch on to my terrible innuendo.
"Oh, you dirty girl!" Rose said, shrieking with laughter. Alice was clutching her sides, trying to get control of her breathing.
"What's so funny?" Bella asked, reappearing at our table.
"Nothing," I said, wiping tears of laughter from my eyes. I didn't want her to know that we'd made both an innuendo and a tongue twister at her expense. I doubted she'd appreciate it.
She huffed and sunk down in her chair, but almost immediately straightened up. "Oh my god!" she exclaimed, craning her neck to see past us. "Look who's here!"
Rose, Alice, and I all turned around, only to see Edward Cullen himself, seated at a table not too far from us. The icing on the cake, though, was that his cousin, James, was with him. There was also another man I didn't know, but he didn't look too bad. Not at all like James.
Somehow sensing all of us staring, Edward looked up and caught my eyes. His face split into his panty-dropping grin, making my body tingle all over. Slowly, he raised his hand and crooked two fingers back to himself, looking me straight in the eye.
"Oh my god!" Bella squealed again. "He's telling me to come over there!" I decided not to point out the fact that he'd been looking straight at me. She hopped off the chair and shot a glance at us, wiggling her eyebrows. "Watch me go get my man!"
I felt like puking.
"Um…" Alice started. "Does she know that Cullen was looking at you?"
"I doubt it," Rose said.
"Ah, let her make a fool of herself," I said, grinning as I watched the show unfold. Bella confidently marched up to the table, propping herself against it in an effort to be seductive. Obviously, she failed. We saw her trail her hand up Edward's arm, only for it to be removed by his own hand. Her face wasn't visible from this angle, but Edward gestured towards me once, so the conversation was pretty obvious. Not a millisecond later, Bella spun around, red-faced and embarrassed, and stormed back over to our table.
"He was looking at you," she spat at me.
I nodded. "I know."
"Well?" she looked at me expectantly.
"Well what?" I asked.
"Aren't you gonna go over there?"
"Hell no," I said, taking a swig of my drink. "His cousin's over there."
Rose nodded. "Understandable." Alice nodded as well, backing her up. Bella just glared at me again and slunk down in her seat. I felt a little bit sorry for her, but then I remembered how mean she'd been to me. That squashed the sympathy really fast.
To be honest, James wasn't the only reason I didn't want to go to Edward's table. I was scared of being in his proximity in a non-work environment – I knew I was attracted to him. There was no way he'd reciprocate those feelings, and I refused to let myself turn into a whore, begging for his attention.
"He's looking at you," Alice commented, sneaking glances over there from the side.
"Let him," I shrugged, acting for all the world that I didn't give a damn.
"Uh…still looking," Rose continued. "And now he's coming over here."
"Shit," I swore. "Any chance for a duck and run?"
"Nope," Alice said, spinning my chair around to face his direction. I came face to face with a very pissed off looking Edward.
"Why didn't you come over?" was the first thing out of his mouth.
I just looked at him, took a sip of my drink, and licked my lips. I could see his eyes follow the motion of my tongue, and I swear that his pupils dilated. Of course, I couldn't see that well in this light, but it sure looked like that.
"Your cousin's over there," I responded, jerking my head in James' direction.
"So?" Edward asked, looking confused.
I sighed, exasperated. If he didn't understand why I wasn't comfortable around James, I wasn't going to talk to him.
"So," Rose picked up for me. "She is not comfortable being around him. Can you comprehend that?" Sarcasm was dripping from her voice.
Edward frowned at me, and I sighed again.
"Look, we're not at work. You're not my boss. So please, leave me alone," I said. "Have a good weekend."
He just stood there.
"Dismissed," Rosalie sang, waving him off. He backed away, still looking pissed off at me. I couldn't care less. I just really wanted to forget about him and his assaholic ways, and just have fun for one night.
"God, he's such a jerk," Alice exclaimed. "Couldn't even understand why you wouldn't go over there."
Bella muttered something under her breath, but everyone ignored her. Just then, the song in the club changed from some weird '60s tune to a fast-paced, modern song. People began crowding the dance floor, cheering at the selection.
"I wanna dance," Rose said, climbing off her chair. I hopped down to go with her, but stopped when someone stood in front of me.
It was a guy, probably around my age, and definitely cute.
"Hi," he said, looking a bit nervous. I smiled at him, and that seemed to give him confidence. "Um…d'you wanna dance…with me?"
I looked him up and down, still smiling the entire time. He looked really nice, like a very sweet guy. So different from my boss, the jerk.
"Sure," I said, grabbing his hand and leading him to the dance floor.
"I'm Felix," he yelled over the music.
"Jane," I replied, already caught up in the song. Felix sure did have some nice moves. He was probably a half foot taller than me in my heels, and he still made me feel like dancing with him. I usually didn't prefer dancing with guys who were too much taller than me. His hands were on my hips, pulling me closer to him, and eyeing my lips dangerously.
Anticipating the kiss, I licked my lips, pulling him by his shirt collar down towards me. Suddenly, Felix looked up, at someone behind me. I turned around in his arms, catching sight of none other than Edward Cullen, my very own personal stalker.
"Do you mind if I cut in?" he asked, in a tone that obviously wasn't taking a negative response.
Felix just looked at me, confused. I kissed his cheek and whispered, "Sorry."
He nodded. "I'll come find you later." He kissed the top of my head and disappeared into the crowd, leaving me alone in the sea of pulsing bodies with my boss.
Edward's eyes raked over my body, taking in every detail, and I couldn't help but shudder under his gaze. "Come with me," he demanded, giving me no choice as he grasped my arm. He dragged me along behind him, with me stumbling in my heels at his fast pace.
"Edward?" I asked, as he tugged me to the back of the club. "Can you not do this, please? I mean, I was having fun. And I don't get why you have such a monumental stick up your ass, but if you don't leave me alone soon, I'll tell Bella that—"
My half-drunk rant was cut off by the sound of Edward growling, a low noise that sounded incredibly sexy coming from him. Then, without another word, he pushed me up against the nearest wall and slammed his mouth down on mine.
Oh, fuck.